The Wisconsin Department of Justice has rewritten a major portion of Wisconsin's Concealed Carry law by ...

specifying a fixed time limit of four hours, banning online training courses, and requiring specific information to be included on completion certificates given to students. None of which is specified in the law. In fact, the bills sponsor in the Wisconsin Senate, Pam Galloway, issued her own press release stating her dissatisfaction with the DOJ rewriting and in her words "usurping" the legislatures power.

According to Galloway, the Wisconsin legislature specifically did not include a fixed time limit for the training since people have varying degrees of skills and they wanted to leave it open for the instructor to decide.

The NRA likewise is unhappy with Attorney General Van Hollen's office and their rule formulation. The rules mean that hundreds if not thousands of training certificates issued previously, including NRA completion certificates will not be accepted because they do not comply with the DOJ rules. The DOJ wants all of the following to be included on student certificates:"Firearms safety or training certificate from a course taught by a national or state organization that certifies firearms instructors, or by an instructor certified by a national or state organization that certifies firearms instructors, or to the public by a law enforcement agency. If you participate in one of these courses, attach a copy of the certificate or affidavit from that course containing the following information:

Applicant’s name
Name of the firearms safety or training course.
Length of the firearms safety or training course (Minimum is 4 hours).
Date on which the applicant completed the firearms safety or training course
The city and state in which the applicant completed the firearms safety or training course
The name, address, and telephone number of the person or entity responsible for the firearms safety or training course (may be an individual instructor, national or state organization, law enforcement agency, educational institution, firearms training school, or another public or private institution or organization)
The name of the instructor who taught the firearms safety or training course and the name of the agency or organization that certified the instructor if different than above.
A signed statement by the instructor who taught the course affirming that the course satisfied the definition of a firearms safety or training course in s. JUS 17.03(8) and that the applicant successfully completed the course"

Most firearm course certificates do NOT contain this information.

Online training is accepted in at least six states as a valid form of training. Including here in Minnesota. While the department bans online training courses, they still accept as valid permits from Minnesota, Colorado and Iowa all of whom allow Firearm Safety Courses to be delivered over the Internet. Additionally, Minnesota and many other states allow for DNR certification to take place through an online process. And the Wisconsin DOJ will accept any DNR training from any other state in the nation. So why won't they also allow their own residents to partake in 21st Century delivery of course content? It is old school thinking. Wisconsin nearly had Constitutional Carry which would have required NO training! I think the DOJ saw this limited authority given to them by the legislature as a way to insert themselves between the citizenry and the citizenry's constitutional right to bear arms. They've in essence become the gatekeeper.

If you don't like this anymore than we, or Pam Galloway and other legislators do, or dislike it as much as the NRA does, then do something about it and contact your WI legislators and have them modify the emergency rules pushed through without public comment by the DOJ. Do it today.